These are the voyages of SV Serenity, whose multi-year mission is to cruise the waters of Newfoundland, and to very carefully go where many others have gone before.
This blog is an online logbook for everything concerning my sailboat. It includes trip journals, repairs, upgrades, observations and anything else directly related to this vessel. Keep checking back, and please leave comments.
"When the wind is right you can sail away and find Serenity"

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Serenity Ashore!

Serenity finally came out of the water this morning, with help from Peter W., Jim, Rod, Peter B., Ross, and a couple other people. The tongue extension and guides worked great! What didn't work was my truck.

We had the boat almost on the trailer and just needed to back everything out into a little deeper water. That's when the brake line broke, and we didn't want to risk going backwards down the ramp any further. The boat could pull the truck under.

The tide was almost up, so we waited to see if it would float the boat enough, but it was to close to the top of the cycle, and we only gained a couple inches closer to the stop.

Another guy was waiting in line to get his sailboat out, and volunteered his truck. This meant tying lines ashore from both the boat and the trailer, uncoupling the extension, carefully moving my truck out of the way, and then attaching the borrowed truck.

With a functional tow vehicle, it only took a couple minutes to properly seat Serenity, and haul it out. I then hooked my truck back on to the trailer and very slowly moved my boat out of the way, so the other guy could get at his boat.

There used to be 2 ramps at the marina, but we lost one with the expansion last year. There can be lineups until a new one can be built in a couple years in another phase.

Being so late in the year, all the water in the marina was off and drained, so there was no way to pressure wash the hull. That will have to wait until I get the boat home. Getting the boat home will require borrowing a truck, since it is now the weekend, and my mechanic doesn't have an opening until probably Thursday. At least the boat is out of the water. We are expecting some high winds again next week.

Some lessons were learned for next year. One is to drop the trailer all the way down on the jack. I shifted the boat forward about a foot on the trailer this afternoon, and the u-bolt is well above the v-stop when the boat is properly positioned. It was about the same level when the boat came up.

Another one is to get Serenity out before the end of October. Not only was there was no water, but I was also lucky that winter has been holding off. Last year this time we had lots of snow.

I still have to drop the mast, get the boat home, and tarp it for the winter, but that is the most challenging part of the season end procedures done.